Authoritarian client state of Nazi Germany led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, formally 'État français', administering the unoccupied southern zone and French colonies after the 1940 armistice; collaborated with German occupation, including deportations, until it dissolved amid the Liberation.
Effectively ended with the Liberation of Paris (Aug 1944); the rump Vichy government fled into exile in Germany (the 'Sigmaringen enclave') until Germany's defeat in 1945. Succeeded on French soil by the Provisional Government of the French Republic.
The atlas holds 2 border frames for Vichy France — the shape you scrub through changes in 1940 · 1943.
Leading modern scholarly history of the Vichy period, widely cited and accessible.